Thoughts For the Day

1. I want Don Pedro to look as much like a young/middle-aged David Niven as possible.
2. Major rethink afoot regarding Benedick and Claudio's uniforms?
3. I should never be allowed to draw beautiful women, only odd men.


I have been doing some major 'costume development' over the past day or so, and with it has come its own problems. On the plus side I have scheduled a meeting on wednesday with both the Makeup/wig designery person and the Poster designer (exciting stuff!). I have also emailed the director because I think it's about time we had a meeting- we haven't had one for months and I want to check he's ok with the new direction of the set.... and costumes... So hopefully that'll get sorted in the near future also.

Major Uniform Rethink?
Now, this is something that has been niggling at me for ages and ages. Originally, just after my intense research stage at the very beginning, I was pretty dead certain about how Benedick and Claudio's uniforms were going to look. Although I had found some pictures of some truly fabulous and colourful Lancers' uniforms, I felt that the infantry beige/grey uniform would be better, as at that time I was going for a more sepia colour-scheme and I was very keen to have the Saris as the only real FLASH of colour. Since this stage, the set and concept has progressed mightily, now with a concept that wholeheartedly relies on a bright colour-scheme to work... and the lancers' uniforms did try creeping their way back into my head- but I still couldn't quite work out if I wanted them- primarily for the following reasons:
-There are some which are prevalent whose main colour is an abundance of dark green/turquoise, which would clash terribly with the blue set.
-They would be SO much harder to source than the infantry uniform, and both time and budget are tight.
However.....
I then revisited (or found for the first time, I'm not really sure) this website:
 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=411
and found this image:

HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THEY!?!!
AND JUST THE RIGHT COLOURS TOO!!
and actually, I think these uniforms are too amazingly beautiful, elegant and unusual to ignore. Not only that, but the yellow especially really goes with the Beatrice's colour-way.
So now I need to put a bit more thought into designing them- which is a bit of a bother when time is so tight, but I think that it has to be done really. Furthermore, I don't think much has to be changed- I just need to do some wider research into ranks, colours, etc and then pick what's appropriate and essentially lift the design from the history books.
My only real concern is that they might not be source-able... do places really stock such uniforms??! For affordable prices? And I certainly don't have the time or manpower to have them both made. BUT I WILL TRY, and if worst comes to worst then I can fall-back on the infantry uniforms. It would be a shame though.

I spent the rest of the day doing some more little painting-drawings of the principle characters and their costumes/costume-changes. I think I've basically got the Dons sorted ish for now, it's just the women that are giving me a bit of trouble at the moment- there's just so many ways to wear things and so many different symbols, and actually surprisingly little information on the Internet about it all. If jewelery means you're married, then what do single women wear? Is there a way of wrapping a Sari where the head is covered but you still have that beautiful excess of fabric trailing at the side? etc.etc.
But I did some more character/face drawings, alas my ones of the Dons really aren't that bad- but I'm ok at drawing odd-looking men... it was my attempt at drawing Beatrice and Hero that really fell flat on its face.... they are just laughable.... Hero looks like a chubby toothy child (at least with an air of innocence as intended) and Beatrice looks suspiciously chiseled.... I won't say anymore.
Just something to note for the future- get better at drawing women...

However, I am pleased to say that these are NOT my attempts at Hero and Beatrice, they are in fact the Dons (John left, Pedro right). But to be honest, if this is the standard of my passable drawings, you can imagine how bad the women look.....